I tried implementing a Spam Control mechanism into the board to prevent IP's that are on the surbl.org list for know Spam IP's from accessing the board.

Only one little problem: Some of you are on that list.

That's not a good thing.

I've turned off IP banning based on that list and you should be able to access the board but I recommend, if you got the notice, that you contact the blacklist and have your IP removed. There was a link that was given to you to find out why you're blocked. Here it is here:

http://www.spews.org/ask.cgi?x=ip.ip.ip.ip

In the URL above enter your ip (4 numbers with dots in between) to find out what's going on.

[Edited on 10-9-2006 by SemperFideles]

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Rich
Drivng across USA
OPC

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Click to get: Board Rules -- Signature Requirements -- Suggestions?

What's an IP?

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Meg
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Click to get: Board Rules -- Signature Requirements -- Suggestions?

IP is short for Internet Protocol but, in this case, I'm referring to your Internet Protocol Address. Every device on the Internet has a unique IP address that identifies where to send information. Here is a good article about the Domain Name System that you're familiar with:
http://www.websitemaven.com/domain_n..._a_domain_name

Here's the IP for my maching on my local area network:
In actuality, though, my computer is on a LAN and the IP that the Internet sees is my modem:
You think you're going to http://www.puritanboard.com when you browse here. In actuality, you're telling your computer to ask the Domain Name System to find the IP for puritanboard.com. Here it is:
You're actually visiting 69.73.139.207 and asking the server: "Hey, can I see the resource for www.puritanboard.com on your server. The DNS told me you have that information."

Pretty simple.

Except if I were on the blacklist (which I'm not, thank God) I'd have no idea what four numbers to put in. I hope anyone who needs that advice knows how to find their numbers. Thanks for the explanation.

Click Start > Run
Type cmd and hit Enter

Type ipconfig /all

This will tell you your IP as well as the Doman Name Servers you are connecting to the Internet through.

I checked your IP from here and it looks like your IP might be dynamically assigned each time you log in.

That might explain some things - my server is really small & strange. Seems to work ok though.

So apparently I'm on the list, and when I got the message, it gave me a list of instances when supposedly I'd spammed people, and some other stuff, but I'm not sure quite what I've done or not done or need to do????

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Jessica H.
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Work: www.uwmedicine.org/Facilities/Harborview/

Oh make this heart rejoice or ache; / Decide this doubt for me; / And if it be not broken, break -- / And heal it, if it be. ~William Cowper

You need to REPENT! Why do you spam? You seem like such a nice person.

Seriously, you need to send the note that you're getting and provide it to your ISP. You'r the victim of the fact that your ISP is on the list. I'm not going to re-implement the block any time soon (until I get a whitelist feature built) but in the meantime, I would cut and paste what the site reported and send it to your ISP requesting that they rectify the problem.

[Edited on 10-9-2006 by SemperFideles]

Okay . . .*stupid question alert* is my ISP whoever I'm paying to have internet?

Oh, btw, that was me . . . I forgot to log in before posting. Sorry.

ISP = Internet Service Provider. Yes, it's who you pay for internet service. Unfortunately, you might not have a choice to switch but you should insist they get you unblocked. It might affect more than just this.

Ha. My IP was blocked, and that's the IP for the second largest provider of cable internet in the UK! Insane.

JH

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Jonathan Hunt

Preaching Elder
Cheltenham Evangelical Free Church (Confessionally Based)
Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, United Kingdom

Logic is a systematic method of coming to the wrong conclusion with confidence.
-- Thomas Elsworth

Jonathan,

That's not uncommon. It's not that the entire ISP is blocked but that certain IP's and domains that use the ISP are flagged. Check out this list from Spamhaus.org:

My IP was blocked too. Thanks for fixing it right away Rich.

What I read said it's possible that my computer's been "zombified", or hacked into by a virus that sends spam from it. It said comcast users have a problem with this.

http://news.com.com/2102-1034_3-5218178.html

I was able to access the forum using a proxy but the server would still not let me post any thing. Of the proxies on the list few work and many gave me an IP that was blocked too. Last night I turned of my router and modem hoping that would work but by then you had fixed it.

I ran a virus scan on my computer and deleted some files but I dont know if the other problem is solved. Some of the websites recommended downloading a Firewall. I already have one from Windows do I need another?

__________________
*Peter Gray* Elkins Park RPCNA

"Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief. " Mk 9:24
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Well, I'm kind of the guy that created the problem by implementing a Spam Control hack to the board. I've still got a feature that disallows folks from posting URL's to known SPAM sites but I turned off IP blocking. I've contacted the guy who wrote the code for the Spam Control hack and, as soon as he implements a "whitelist" feature, I'm going to put it back up. Prior to that time, I'll make sure to get the IP's of users so we can whitlist them into the board. I think it will actually improve performance for all because we'll be blocking more malicious bots coming our way.

It's possible that your computer was "taken over" but improbable that it's the issue. If it was, then getting the Zombie code off your system doesn't help you in terms of the status of your IP. As noted above, the major ISP's have many IP's that are blacklisted. They basically have to clean house until those IP's are taken down. It doesn't help that, with your modem, you are probably connecting via DHCP (Dynyamic Host Control Protocol) and you receive a different IP every time you log in among a pool of IP's that the ISP owns. My guess is that they had a person spamming (or a zombified computer) that used an IP or IP's in their pool. Again, your best bet is to hold your ISP's feet to the fire. You might be able to insist that they assign a "clean" static IP to you. That is, ask them for an IP that is not on the list and that it not change when you log in. They might not be able to do so but it doesn't hurt to ask.

It's not my intent to create unnecessary work for folks but this is of some benefit to you guys to know that you are connecting to the Internet with IP's that are considered spam. It might well prevent others from receiving e-mail from you. There is only one ISP that services military families that live in base housing in Okinawa called Mediatti. It is blacklisted by a ton of e-mail servers and I used to have a problem with my family not receiving any e-mail from me because of that. Thankfully, I live off base now and connect via a 100MBps fiber connection to the Internet that has a dedicated IP.

So if we have dynamic IP's, how can those be whitelisted? Or can they?

That's what I'm going to end up figuring out. Usually you'll connect from a pool of IP's. I'll probably whitlelist the Class C's that you would connect from.

In the end, however, if it proves too hard to manage, I'm not going to implement it. I don't want to keep people away and chase this Spam IP thing. It would be too frustrating and too much work. I've implemented some other security features that have virtually eliminated spam bot registrations.

If this is the first that I've run across this problem, how big of a deal is it that I try to fix it? (Especially since I've got Comcast, and from article that Peter linked to, it looks like this is a typical problem for them).

Jessica,

Might not be a big problem except that other services might block you. It could end up resolving itself after you've "owned" the IP for a while and it drops off the list. I would still bug Comcast about the fact that your IP was reported as SPAM but don't sweat it.